Security devices are not new per se. A typical presently known system utilizes a single vinyl clad steel cable or chain threaded through a plurality of garments suspended on a store display fixture wherein the ends of the cable are secured by a locking mechanism to the fixture or rack. While this system is generally effective in securing the garments against theft, it nevertheless has certain disadvantages and drawbacks. For example, when a customer desires to select a given garment from the rack for "try on", it is necessary for the attendent sales personnel to unlock one end of the cable and release the selected garment by pulling the chain or cable through the other garments which are in the garment cluster until the garment under consideration is released for "try on". It has been found that this procedure is cumbersome and even potentially damaging to the merchanise and requires assistance of sales personnel even when customers are merely trying on the merchanise. Of course, each time a garment is removed, whether it is selected for purchase or not, it is necessary for the sales personnel to rethread the cable to secure the garments remaining on the rack or fixture and this is also time consuming. It is has also been observed that the entire process detracts from so-called impulse sales.
In accordance with a more recent security system, individual display items or garments are secured to a security mechanism mounted on the display fixture or rack by means of individual cables connected at one end to the display merchandise and at its opposite end detachably locked to the security mechanism. These security mechanisms are key-operated to permit release of the cables from the security device. Typically, one end of each of the cables is fitted with an enlarged spherical locking element which engages in a single elongated key-hole slot in the security device and normally locked therein by means of a key-operated mechanism within the security device. Thus the cables are locked in a single-file array and while the system allows greater flexibility for "try-on" purposes, it does not provide flexibility for disengaging any one of the cables individually from the locking device unless it is the first one in the array adjacent the release key-hole portion of the slot. For example, to remove a garment attached by a cable at the bottom-most position in the cable retention slot of the security mechanism requires removal and replacement of all of the cables ahead of it in its path. Thus, while this system is an improvement over the prior system first discussed above, it is also cumbersome to use and time consuming for store personnel.